Good afternoon from not-actually-Retail Media Age-HQ,
A quick one this week as I’m writing to you from a slightly unexpected location – I’m in New York City! I flew out here to attend an event hosted by DoorDash, the quick delivery company that also owns Deliveroo and Wolt.
It’s been an action-packed trip: on Wednesday morning I visited DoorDash HQ for one-to-one conversations with Toby Espinosa, VP Ads at DoorDash, and Catalina Salazar, Global Head of Ads at Wolt. While you’ll have to wait for the full write-ups to learn everything we discussed, the conversations gave me a chance to learn about their backgrounds and what led them to the retail media industry, while also probing into where they see retail media evolving and what that means from their particular perspective operating in the rapid delivery space.
One interesting recurring theme was discussion of the ‘funnel’ – Espinosa disagrees with the idea that the consumer funnel has collapsed, while Salazar prefers not to think in terms of a funnel at all, but in terms of channels of influence. (In her words: “People don’t move through funnels; they move through life.”)
We also spoke about the increasingly prominent role played by creative in retail media and of the opportunities opened by offsite to reach consumers in different moments with varied kinds of messaging.
If anyone is looking for a New York eatery recommendation, look no further than Alba Accanto, where we enjoyed a dinner on Thursday evening: the food was beyond fantastic. I enjoyed excellent conversation with other members of the press and executives at DoorDash (we even managed to talk about things other than retail media! This will shock my colleague Andy Oakes, who knows I love my retail media nerdery…) and I have to give props to the sheer attention to detail throughout the evening, which even extended to DoorDash Ads-branded ice cubes.
Picture proof!
I’d also like to direct readers towards our latest My Road to Retail Media interviewee: Gadiza Saaidi, Co-Founder at Qannas Group and Retail Media Lead Benelux at Unilever. Saaidi has some brilliant stories to tell about her background and view of retail media (which she describes as “a global transformation in how commerce ecosystems operate”), the ‘tipping point’ she sees ahead in Benelux retail media, and who in the industry has most shaped her approach to retail media. It’s a really worthwhile read.
And finally, a great discussion with leaders from Trainline, Tesco Media, and the Telegraph at InfoSummit London produced some fascinating insights into how each organisation is walking the line between protecting the customer experience and delivering against commerce media goals. You can read the full article here.
Read more from Retail Media Age’s editorial staff and expert commentators in our RMA columns.
